Monday, April 25, 2016

A new slide-based report from Navigant Research explores the community solar market in the United States, with a focus on technology and policy trends, customer adoption, utility rollouts, and the vendor landscape, through 2025.

Utilities across the U.S. have been deploying community solar programs since 2010, offering solar energy to residential and commercial users in multi-story buildings and those without an adequate roof to support solar electricity generation. Community solar is enabled by virtual net metering, which allows consumers to offset part or all of their electricity bills with the electricity produced by the solar project. Click to tweet: According to a new report from @NavigantRSRCH, the total installed capacity for community solar programs across the country is expected to be 1.5 GW in 2020, representing a $2.5 billion market.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Energy storage is one of the hottest topics in the electricity industry today. As battery costs decline, many actors are recognizing the huge potential of storage to lower the cost of the grid and become a booming, multibillion dollar market. But although Tesla and its competitors capture all the headlines, it's always worth noting that energy storage can come from multiple sources—not just batteries—and there are many ways to bring the technology to market.

Now, a promising new initiative launched by a coalition of industry stakeholders aims to promote the concept of "community storage" in utilities across the U.S. Community storage programs let utilities aggregate customer-owned, behind-the-meter resources like water heaters, electric vehicles, and batteries to provide services to the grid. In doing so, these programs help reduce the cost of maintaining and upgrading the grid, and help lower customers' bills.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

April 09--With solar garden developers chafing at the slow pace of Xcel Energy's approval process, a state-appointed engineer this week released a blistering report on the big utility's handling of one particular Minnesota solar project.

The findings on that one project could apply to many other Minnesota solar garden proposals, according to both solar developers and Xcel.

The independent engineer, working under the aegis of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), among other things criticized Xcel's cost estimates and engineering standards for a proposed community solar garden near Becker, which is being developed by SunShare, one of the largest solar garden builders in Minnesota.

Starting with a pilot project on the island of O'ahu, Hawaiian Electric Company will use Varentec's Edge of Network Grid Optimizers™ and Grid Edge Management System™ platform to minimize voltage fluctuations along the distribution grid and maintain safe, reliable operations along a neighborhood circuit with a high level of distributed solar generation.

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Santee Cooper customers will be able to purchase shares of Colleton Solar Farm’s output through a new program kicking off Friday.

The state-owned utility’s board of directors recently approved the Solar Share community solar project and new rebates, according to a news release.

Customers in the program will receive a monthly credit on their electric bill based on their share of the solar energy produced at the farm. The current purchase price is $1.88 per watt, which is offset by a $1-per-watt rebate, for a net cost to customers of $880 for a 1-kilowatt subscription, the news release said.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has found that nearly 40 percent of electricity in the U.S. could come from rooftop solar photovoltaics, according to a new study.

The total figure, 1,118 gigawatts, is nearly double the previous estimate of 664 gigawatts that NREL calculated in 2008. The increase is due mostly to increasing module power density, more granular data and a better grasp of building suitability for solar.

"This report is the culmination of a three-year research effort and represents a significant advancement in our understanding of the potential for rooftop PV to contribute to meeting U.S. electricity demand," Robert Margolis, NREL senior energy analyst and co-author of the report, said in a statement.